Under the Watchful Eye of War
by LastCetra
Summary: Four years have past since the destruction of Meteor. The Junon army has been going on a rampage, taking over town after town. It is only a matter of time before war is declared on Wutai. It is up to Yuffie to defend her city, but even she is preoccupied
1. A Ninjas thoughts and the Turks Return

**Under the Watchful Eye of War**

_**By LastCetra**_

**Chapter 1: A Ninja's Thoughts and the Turk's Return**

Hidden away on a very excluded point on the Wutai continent stood a young woman. Even from a distance, you could tell that she was powerful, despite her deceptive slight frame and uncommon beauty. In fact, the air around her shimmered with the power she exuded. But that was to be expected. She was by far the best ninja in Wutai, highly trained in hand to hand combat by the age of eight, trained in every weapon by the age of twelve and had an armlet glittering with some of the strongest materia the plant had ever seen. Also it must be mentioned that she was one of eight people who saved the world just four years beforehand. She was sixteen at the time.

These things however were the last things Yuffie Kisaragi was thinking about while she went through her daily training ritual. What took up Yuffie's present thinking time were very serious matters, and not past glories. What Yuffie was concentrating on was one heck of a beast in front of her, not unlike the green dragons they'd encountered in Nibelhiem. In the past year foreign animals were popping up all over the continent, which was alright for Yuffie but becoming a worry for the townspeople in Wutai.

Well, she supposed, this one wasn't going to worry them at all. Stooping low she let her shuiriken fly into the beast's abdomen. It let out a shriek of rage at the wound, which she realised as she caught the weapon on the rebound was shallow because of it's hard scales. The dragon lashed out wildly with his claws aiming for Yuffie's general direction. Seeing the attack a mile away she rolled easily to the side. The dragon's claws scraped along the ground leaving a trail of toxins.

"Just great," she muttered. "It's poisonous."

Heaving a sigh she did a flip backwards, springing off the palms of her hands. After getting a moderate distance between them she concentrated on the materia on her armlet. A bolt of electricity came crashing down the dragon, but rather than having the destructive effect that she had hoped for, the shallow wound healed itself up. Groaning, she wished she'd brought her Sense materia with her. A change of plans was in order.

"Okay you son of a bitch," she said. "No more playing around. This means war." She realised what she had said as soon as the words were out. She covered her mouth subconsciously, immediately regretting it. The dragon saw her moments hesitation as an opportunity to attack and took off, closing the distance between them in seconds. He threw back his arm and slashed Yuffie with his claws. Yuffie saw the attack at the last second and threw herself back. His last attack was virtually blind, a counter for the pain he was in but this one was much better; aim, balance and control were perfect. Had it not been for Yuffie's quick reflexes she would have been ripped in two. It did however, rip her tee-shirt, turning it into more of a belly top. This really didn't worry her too much at the moment. Her pressing concern now was the raging beast just over her.

"Come on Yuffie," she admonished herself. "You took on Sephiroth better than this." She reached down and grabbed a knife from her boot, pulling it out quickly and plunged it into the soft centre of the dragon's underbelly. She then dragged it down tearing it's stomach in two with it's movement. She'd learned that one from Cloud's climhazzard attack. It let out a roar and fell awkwardly on it's side, Yuffie making sure she got out of the way as it fell. She'd learned what it was like to get dragon slime on her clothes.

Well, she thought. There were advantages to being in that kind of situation. Reaching over carefully she extracted the knife from the dragon's stomach, which made it cry out again in pain. Taking pity at it's helplessness, she stabbed it in the head, where it slipped into eternal slumber.

Giving her body a shake and wiping the perspiration from her brow, Yuffie decided to think about different things. Meditation was one of Yuffie's favourite parts of training. She began the technique when she was fourteen, without any of her trainers knowing. She had been caught by Gorky eventually, and rather than give out to her about starting things without his consent, he showed her how to do it properly. She had continued doing it till this day. What she hated about meditating though, was the stereotypical image most people had of it; cross legged in such a fashion that you almost broke your ankles, putting your hands in an ok symbol on your knees and going "umm." Yuck. What she did was a _lot _more normal. She just sat down and put her hands on her lap. Which was what she did now. She slowly inhaled and exhaled until she felt the world around her disappear.

Her mother had always told her that the biggest battle was in her mind. That was what she did every day. Her meditation was to fight away her fears, doubts, anything that could possibly make her a weaker fighter. She let her thoughts swirl around in her head, sorting her dreams, her memories and her goals into separate little folders in her brain. She flicked though them, and picked out a few she hadn't thought of in a while. She remembered meditating like this once when they had made camp in the Rocket Town Area. It had been a long meditation, over two hours. When she'd finished she looked behind her to see the whole of AVALANCHE staring at her.

"She awakes!" Cloud and Barret had cried in unison, giving each other a high-five and laughing their heads off. Cait Sith and Red XIII were sniggering at their comment. Tifa was holding back a smile and Vincent was as impassive as usual. They hadn't met Cid at that point in their journey and she could only be thankful that he wasn't there, otherwise she would have never heard the end of it. Aeris had given her a sympathetic smile. She was the only one that seemed to understand…

Her thoughts were leading towards Aeris' untimely death but she decided to skip that memory; she already visited that one more times than she wanted to, and it only led on to more painful memories. Instead she thought of her hometown. Since the Midgar-Wutai war everything had gone downhill. She had been far too young to participate in it as her mother had just given birth to her about a year beforehand. It was all over by the time she was three. Afterwards, Wutai had turned into a tourist trap, even more so in the past few years. The people visiting this place was phenomenal, and she hated it. Everyone in Wutai were taking advantage of this boom in economy and were setting up tourist stalls with cheap souvenirs, along with hotels and restaurants. She had to live with it before; the regulations Wutai were given for their freedom after the war was to open the town up to tourists and to decrease their army. But Midgar was gone, Sephiroth, their main soldier, was dead. But still nothing was being done. And Godo wasn't doing anything about it either. He welcomed the changes in Wutai. This was not what her mother would have wanted…

Taking a deep breath, Yuffie slowly opened her eyes. Looking at the sun, she realised she must have been out of it for almost an hour. Blinking her thoughts away for now, she gathered her things and hurried back to Wutai. She had had enough of training for one day.

Two men walked into Wutai town. Both were wearing a smart blue suit but besides that they were completely different. One had fiery red hair, aquamarine eyes and had two thin scars running down his cheeks. He held a nightstick loosely at his side, which was tied to a strap on his arm. The other was bald, had a stocky build and was darker skinned. He wore sunglasses whatever the weather. The man's arsenal of weaponry was something to be reckoned with however; there were three guns of different sizes in different pockets, he had a knife strapped to his leg and if all those failed he had some brass knuckles to fall back on. He always thought there was no harm in being prepared.

The red-head grinned and stretched, reaching high into the air. The movement made him expose his thin muscular body.

"Man it's been a while. I guess the last time we were here was when we were on vacation, huh?"

No response. He turned to his silent comrade.

"Damn, Rude, the least I could get is a 'yes Reno,' or 'yeah Reno,' or 'uh huh.' You know what? I'd even take a grunt at this stage." Rude gave him a look, before proceeding to walk into the town.

"Hey!" Reno protested, running after him. "Don't do that to me! You're always doing that! Do you take pleasure in not answering?" Again Rude didn't reply. He just kept walking forward.

"Where are we going anyway?" he asked.

Rude sighed. "To our house, Reno."

"Oh," he replied. "Where exactly is this house anyway?"

"Close to the Pagoda. Don't you listen?" Reno ignored the remark and continued his questioning.

"Do they know we're from Junon?"

"…no."

"Hmph, I'm surprised. I thought the fact that we're their potential enemy could have posed at least a few questions."

Rude paused before answering. "Let's be glad it didn't."

"I hear ya buddy," he said, slapping his shoulder. "I would have been bored stiff sitting in front of the Wutain Guard being asked meaningless questions for about six hours." Rude didn't reply.

They walked through the town, past the old shops they had seen before, and stopping a few times to look inside the new ones. They avoided the Da Chao for today as all it was just a big rock with faces on it that could never change, unless some thug got a giant spray paint can and decided the perfect place to try his new art would be on the Da Chao. Of course that man would more than likely be hunted down and killed by a mob of angry villagers. After a about an hour of getting reacquainted with the place, as they had very fond memories of their last visit, they eventually wandered into the quiet square at the back of the village. In front of them loomed the five story pagoda, the tower of the gods.

"I'd like to visit that place," said Rude thoughtfully. Reno turned toward him.

"Why? I know we've never been there and all and I suppose it looks cool but I have no real urge to see inside it."

Rude shrugged. "I just do. It looks….. interesting." He pointed to the left. "That's our house."

"What?" Reno asked, partially surprised. "But that's the house where Don Corneo captured Kisaragi and…" he trailed off. Rude nodded.

"Elena," he finished, his voice barely audible. He shook his head quickly, looked up and smiled.

"Let's go," he said brightly. "They took down the gong," he noted. "It was probably taking up too much space in the square." He strode up to the door and turned the key in the lock, letting himself in. He looked around. Check the perimeter, that's what he'd always been told. Tseng had drilled that into his brain from the very first day, and if ever Reno didn't check a room which Tseng was occupying he'd end up in serious pain. He couldn't count the number of times he'd woken from unconsciousness. His mentor always took him by the hand and helped him up, but he'd always hear his twenty-three word lecture.

"_If I were your assassin, you'd be dead. I'm an assassin, but lucky for you, I haven't been paid to kill you yet."_

"Rude? How many times were you knocked unconscious by Tseng?"

"Pardon?" he asked in bewilderment.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Happy that the area was safe, he walked inside. The interior was brightly decorated with traditional Wutain ornaments. It was almost a crime to see all their boxes scattered everywhere in the room as it ruined the scene. Almost. It was too much culture for Reno's taste. Give him a few posters and a comfy chair and he was as happy as a pig in mud. He looked at his watch. At least the movers had been on time.

"I like it," Rude said.

Reno wasn't listening to his words at all, so instead he just watched the red head disappear into the kitchen. He had good feelings about this place. The temperature was just hot enough for his liking, there were places to explore, different things to do… he wouldn't get bored of this place for several months. He'd only been here less than a day, but already the place made him feel so relaxed and at ease.

Reno emerged from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. Rude raised an eyebrow above his glasses, wondering how in the world Reno got champagne, _chilled champagne _for that matter, at this hour. Reno saw his friend's expression and laughed.

"I know that look. I just asked the movers to shove a bottle in the fridge when they got here."

Rude had to smile. It was typically Reno.

"That's the spirit!" the sloppy Turk said enthusiastically, letting the cork fly from the neck with a _pop! _He poured the bubbly alcohol into the two long-stemmed glasses and handed one to Rude.

"To our new life in Wutai!" he proclaimed, raising his glass.

Rude nodded and clinked his glass against Reno's.

_Author's note:_

_Hi everyone! Decided to try my hand at a long fic for once! I do admit, though I love one-shots, it doesn't hurt to see how a non one-shot will work (or not work, depends on how well this goes!). Please stick with me; the chapters will get more interesting as I go, I just needed to introduce the main characters properly first. Thanks for reading, and it would be greatly appreciated if you'd drop a review!_

_LastCetra._


	2. War

**Chapter 2: War**

"Godo? Dad, I'm home," Yuffie called. Godo was always in her house these days. Sometimes, it seemed that he had no other life outside being there. He wanted an excuse to check up on her she supposed. Sliding the door to her house shut, she took a casual look around her room. It hadn't changed much since Avalanche were last there. It hadn't changed at all really, except for a bit of wear and tear. The place really needed to be cleaned up a bit; the walls needed painting, the curtains were sun-bleached and even the carpet was worn in places. Maybe she'd get round to it when times weren't so stressful. With the Planet as it was at the moment, she wished she was back with Avalanche. She remembered the last time they were all here, four years ago. Looking back on it now, that had been the funniest time of her life. Running around from place to place, hiding in pots, behind screens, up in rafters, just so she could steal all their materia. She laughed. Good times. They had all unfortunately, gone their separate ways. Barret was in Kalm with Tifa, and they were taking care of Marlene. Cid was in Rocket Town, Red XIII was in Cosmo Canyon studying. Why anybody would study on their own, willingly was something beyond her. Reeve had gone back to Gold Saucer with Cait Sith, their fortunes were very popular amongst young couples and children. She'd heard that the place had closed down recently though, so she didn't know where they were now. Lastly, Cloud and Vincent had disappeared off the face of the Gaia. She'd heard of sightings of Vincent from a few contacts she had in Junon about a year ago, but other than that, nothing.

She walked over to her bed and threw her Conformer on the neatly made covers. The cleaning lady had obviously been here. She was a true blessing, being able to keep her room clean. She paled to think what her room would look like without her help. A rubbish tip probably. No, more like a landfill. She continued down the stairs and into the room where "the cage" was. The cage that she tricked Cloud into trapping Vincent and Aeris in when she took their materia. She always smiled when walking in there at the memory.

Yuffie made her way over to the switch that activated the cage. The left switch still operated the cage but the right lever was disabled now. She pulled the right one and a keyboard slid out from underneath. A small screen showed up above the levers. "Password" was written on it in green lettering. Yuffie typed it in without hesitation.

AVALANCHE

The password made a beep in affirmation and suddenly the floor went out from under her. Yuffie wasn't surprised by this anymore but the feeling of having nothing stable to lean on was still odd. She pulled her legs under her as she knew it could be a rough landing. After falling for another six seconds she landed on the floor with a thump.

"You know Yuffie, you should really get a set of stairs built in."

She looked up to see her father looking down at her, his hand outstretched. Yuffie ignored it and got up herself.

"I think it's fun," she insisted. "It's like my own miniature theme park!" Godo rolled his eyes a her.

"You're twenty years old Yuffie. When are you going to grow up?"

Yuffie looked at him in surprise. He hardly ever criticised her fun-loving personality She opened her mouth to say something very rude but he continued, cutting her off.

"Anyway, I think I'll bring down a cushion next time. How was training?"

"Shorter than I wanted it to be, but…"

Godo nodded. "I know," he said. "Before, you'd be gone all day. Four hours just isn't enough for you."

"I haven't seen you in a few days," she said, walking into the room, filled with maps and reports and nonsense that Yuffie was supposed to read but never bothered to. A computer screen bleeped and buzzed on her left, gathering and feeding information here from other networks. It was hard to believe that all this was under her house. It would have made more sense to put it under the Pagoda or somewhere but Godo insisted on putting it here, for reasons that nobody would expect it here. She didn't agree, it would make perfect sense to put it here, as they had one of the "Eight Warriors" as it's bodyguard. (The "Eight Warriors," was a description the press had taken a shine to after the destruction of Meteor. It was now used in everyday language.) In the centre of the room was a giant world map painted out on the floor. Some cities were shaded in red, others were painted green. Wutai was shaded in blue. Some of the maps hanging on the walls had red, green and blue pins in the same points as the map on the floor. For one brief moment Yuffie thought of the game "Battleships" she'd played as a child.

"I've been busy," he replied, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Being the Lord of Wutai has it's downsides you know."

"What's our situation?" Yuffie asked, trying to divert his attention from giving her a lecture on how important is it to be an example to Wutai, and how it would soon be her turn.

"We haven't seen each other in a while, you tell me what you know, and I'll fill you in with anything you've missed."

"Couldn't you just tell me?" she whined. Godo gave her a pained look. She opened her mouth to give a swift remark but decided against it when she looked at the state he was in. Nothing too obvious; his clothes were clean and he was very well kept. What she saw was his slumping posture, the dark circles under his eyes and the worry lines that creased his brow, making him look much older. She decided to concede for once.

"Alright," she said, walking over to the map on her right. Godo gave her a grateful smile.

"Well," she said, pointing to the city on the map. "This is Junon. They started a war about six months ago by invading and taking over Kalm. They then swarmed the Mythril Mines and took Fort Condor as well. Um…" she started wringing her hands, desperately trying to think of something to say. Yuffie hated speeches, especially trying to speak without some sort of object in her hand like a sheet of paper or a card so that if she couldn't think of anything, her little notes would help her. It was weird talking in front of even her father like this. They had never been that close anyway, and things only got worse and worse when her mother died. They had just, drifted apart she supposed. And the rift was becoming too wide to seal now. Besides, what could she-

"Tell me about it's defences," Godo prompted, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Okay, I suppose it's well placed," she started, unsure of what to say. Godo was nodding, willing her to continue.

"It's the only real docking area on the continent so they would be able to control any major trade going in and out of there." She felt her confidence growing with each sentence she spoke. "They also have the only airstrip which basically puts them at a major advantage to us, because they can control anything going in or out of the continent."

"Good," said Godo. "You forgot to mention the Chocobo Farm though, which they took last night." Yuffie froze.

"Really? But, the farm is our main supply of grains!"

"Now you're starting to think like a strategist Yuffie," Godo said with a half-smile and laid his hand on her shoulder. "Yes, it is. And now that they're in control of our number one mode of transport it's going to make things really difficult for us. I have people sowing seeds as we speak, but for now, we're going to have to rely on our stores to feed the chocobos."

"Attack isn't our option Dad, you know that. It's just a last resort."

"I realise that," he replied, walking away from the map towards the centre of the room. He rubbed his forehead thoughtfully. "Even if we wanted to attack Junon we couldn't. Our army is still far too small. Every option has to be looked at though, you know that as well as I do."

Yuffie didn't reply, she just kept looking at the map. It wasn't just the western continent that Junon controlled. Their rule spread as far as Corel. Costa Del Sol didn't put up resistance at all. They knew that their trade system would be greatly affected with Junon's absence early on, and did what was best for their town. Corel's situation was pretty similar; their trade in coal had flourished under Junon's rule.

"What are we going to do?" she asked quietly.

Godo looked at her sadly. His daughter was still too young to face this kind of thing. The responsibility she had been given was enormous, and it worried him on how she would deal with it.

"I'm thinking of bringing in conscription. I can't see any other choice. Most men have done a year's army service already. It'll just be a few others that we have to train."

"Who are you putting in charge of this?" she asked. "Shake?"

Godo looked uncomfortable.

"Uh, no actually. I was thinking you could do it."

"Hell no!" she exclaimed, clenching her fist and taking a threatening step forward. Godo raised his hands in a defensive manner and kept the space between them, stepping backwards. Anger flashed in her eyes. "I'm stronger than that, and you know it. I beat you for Leviathan's sake! I don't need to be kept on the sidelines like someone who can't defend herself!"

"Now honey…" Godo tried to reason.

"_Don't_, call me 'honey,'" she snapped. "I am _not_ in the mood for training arrogant little-"

"Yuffie, don't say something you'll regret."

"Urgh!" she screamed. "I'm going to burn something down!" She grabbed a mastered fire materia from her pocket and slotted it into her crystal bangle. She concentrated, and soon a yellow glow started to surround her. Godo, panicking at the thought of the cost of replacing all this equipment tackled her to the ground, breaking the spell. Yuffie reacted by punching her father in the gut, making him fall backwards.

"_That_ was uncalled for Yuffie," he grunted, clutching his stomach. She didn't reply, instead she brushed herself off and headed for the exit.

"I'm going out," she said, before storming off.

"You get back here young lady!" Godo yelled after her. "Yuffie!"

That was the problem of having one of the most powerful girls on the Planet as your daughter. You had no control whatsoever.

"Turtles Paradise," said Reno triumphantly, holding up a glass of beer. "I've been waiting four years to get back to this place." Rude took his own glass and drank some of his beverage.

"We've got to go find some work tomorrow Reno, remember that," he said.

"Oh quit it and have some fun, my bald headed friend. We're here now, it's our first day in this wonderful town so we might as well celebrate."

"You _celebrate_ wherever you go," he pointed out. "Remember the last time you were here?"

Reno snorted into his glass.

"Remind me, Rude."

"….. I'd rather not."

"Elena was hilarious that day," Reno chuckled fondly, thinking of his friend. "Do you know where she is now?"

Rude folded his arms. "Last I heard, she was living with some relations in Junon."

"Family," he murmured. "A luxury we never got to experience." Rude said nothing, just stared into his beer, hoping that it would do something to break the uncomfortable silence that was growing. However, he knew it could only do that when he got drunk, so he didn't relish the thought of it happening.

"Anyway," Reno said, stretching his body like a cat. "Let's not break the mood. Everything is going well for us again. Life is good."

"You look tired, Reno."

"…don't worry about it okay?" he said with a laugh. "I'm just not used to being awake at seven in the morning." He yawned.

"At least I'll get a sleep-in tomorrow."

Rude's eyebrow raised above his sunglasses.

"Uh, Reno?"

"Yeah?" he replied, taking a drink.

"The people of Wutai get up at seven every morning."

Reno started choking on his beer. He started coughing and spluttering, spraying the alcoholic liquid like a fountain across the table. Rude waited a few seconds, before reaching over and slapping him on the back. He coughed a few times more, before finally clearing his throat.

"You okay?" Rude asked.

"No!" he almost yelled. "We have to be up at seven? _Every morning? _SEVEN?" A few people looked over to where they were sitting, throwing dirty looks.

"Keep your voice down," Rude said flatly. "You're disturbing the customers."

"SEVEN?" he whisper-screamed.

"You do know that fifty percent of the population get up at five to start training here, don't you?"

Reno was truly speechless. His eyes were wide, and he felt as if he could faint at any moment.

"But, I… how, sleep… dark… why?" he mumbled incoherently.

"I think that you should-"

"YOU!" a shrill voice yelled across the bar, interrupting the engrossing conversation between the two Turks. It bounced off the walls, echoing through their eardrums over and over. Reno flopped his head down on the table.

"Oh damn," he moaned. He knew that voice, but he didn't want to turn around to meet it. What he really wanted to do was leave his forehead rest on the cool, smooth, wooden table and sleep for eternity so he'd miss this encounter. Rude didn't speak, he just nodded. He didn't know if it was to himself or Reno though. Probably to himself because Reno was currently face down on the table, but it didn't really matter. He didn't care about this encounter. He knew it was going to happen eventually so sometimes it was better to get over these things. He propped his head on his hand and waited for his red-headed friend to get over his childish behaviour, which didn't take long.

Reno put both palms on the table and pushed himself up dramatically. Putting a smile on his face he turned around to face his former enemy.

"Yuffie!" he said with forced enthusiasm. "Who'd have thought we'd be in the same place at the same time! How are you?"

"Don't play me for a fool, Turk," the ninja growled. "What are Junon scum like you doing in Wutai?" Reno raised his hands in defence.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa babe, you have the completely wrong idea here!" Yuffie placed her hands on her narrow hips, not convinced.

"Don't ever call me that again," she threatened, closing her fist.

"Reno, just be quiet," Rude muttered to himself.

"Hey, _sor-ry, _honey. I can't help myself." Reno's smirk was wiped from his face as Yuffie's fist collided with his gut. He hunched over himself, completely winded. He didn't even have time to tense. Her skills had definitely improved.

"Yuffie," Rude spoke up. The twenty year old jumped at the mention of her name.

"Rude!" she replied. "I didn't see you."

"…I apologise. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You did _not_ scare me," she insisted. "I was just, surprised, that's all." She shook her head furiously. She was getting off track.

"Tell me what you're doing here," she demanded.

"We heard that Godo was looking for bodyguards," he explained. "We wanted to go for an interview."

"A Junonian would not 'look for an interview,'" she hissed. "Not here."

"That's the truth," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. He looked over at Reno, still clutching his stomach in pain. The ninja could pack a punch.

"I wonder if that's what you'll say after a little 'questioning' Turk, cause I don't trust ya." Yuffie turned to the bar tender.

"Call the Wutain Guard," she ordered. "And we must have a talk later about letting sworn enemies of Wutai into a bar, never mind consume alcohol." She turned to the Turks.

"You're under arrest, under the suspicion of spying."

Reno groaned, but in exasperation or pain, no one was sure.

_Authors Note: Finally! Got all background done and the main characters have met so now I can finally get the ball rollin'! Thanks for reading!_

_LC_

**_LetMeLive:_ **_I hope I can meet your expectations with it! Thanks bunches for reviewing!_


End file.
